I disagree. It’s not the first time he says that Vettel deserves his championships, he’s just somewhat frustrated that he can’t challenge him throughout a whole season since 2010. I don’t find it suspicious that a world champion says that another world champion is doing a great job. He’s in better position than we are to judge how good a driver is.

Please. The fanbase immediately pounced on hid comments because he is Lewis Hamilton, and criticising him is easy.

Hamilton’s comments could have been interpreted one of two ways: that he doesn’t think much of Vettel, or that he thinks that he and Alonso should be racing Vettel rather than being stuck trundling around the midfield. People naturally take up the former.

It’s funny that we have so many people condemning others for not respecting Vettel – and yet, they dive headfirst into Hamilton’s comments, deliberately taking them out of context. Which is itself disrespectful.

I remember pre-twitter days when we were not able to rip and apart and suck the marrow from an athlete’s stray thought, as if it were a quote from a deposition being read to a hostile witness in court. It was such an innocent time.

Also, yes, it was boring to see Schumacher lay waste to the field every race. That is a fact. If you were a Schumacher fan, it was still boring. It’s like turning on the tap in your bathroom to brush your teeth—clean, running water is awesome and worth our respect, but really it’s not exciting that it happened yet again another morning. Vettel hasn’t reached that level yet. We still have talk on Fridays about a Mercedes or Lotus challenge with a straight face. But if Newey doesn’t stumble with the new rules, hot and cold running domination, here we come.

” Itâ€™s like turning on the tap in your bathroom to brush your teethâ€”clean, running water is awesome and worth our respect, but really itâ€™s not exciting that it happened yet again another morning.”

I think it’s pretty simple. Right after the race, it was frustration talking. He felt he had given his best but could not get even close to Vettel because of the (relatively) poor Mercedes. For sure, he realises that Vettel is in the same class as him and is ready to openly admit it when the storm is over.

We probably sometimes overreact to F1 drivers’ words, particularly the ones that have been said in anger. When an F1 driver thinks that he’s hard done by, he acts a bit like a 5-year old. I don’t see much difference between Hamilton, Vettel, di Resta, Grosjean, Raikkonen and everyone else in that sense.

He felt he had given his best but could not get even close to Vettel because of the (relatively) poor Mercedes.

I agree with your comment, but I would criticise Hamilton for exactly that reason on this occasion @girts. He clearly didn’t get the best out of his car, hence why his teammate overtook him after he minced his tyres (and likely would’ve maintained that position, had the sparks not been flying).

Hamilton is very prone to acting on his feelings directly after a race, his ‘wear my heart on my sleeve’ mentality gets the best of him sometimes but at the same time the media don’t do him any favours (or any driver for that matter) when putting what he says into context.

He would benefit from not letting it all spill as soon as he gets out of the car, he seems to double back and reflect on a lot of things he says to often these days.

Twitter seems to be the only outlet a lot of drivers (& celebs) get their word out without someone else fiddling it.

trouble is that they have this interview bullpen thing that they absolutely have to do. the whole idea is to get drivers at their least reserved and quite often at their most stressed. imagine the quotes we’d have got from sharp tongued drivers like James Hunt and Keke Rosberg if they had been put through this back in their day

You are right, it is the most crucial time to grab the drivers for their reaction on the race but I just think he has to do himself a favour once in a while. Obviously don’t hold back and lie just to please the masses (I love Hamilton because he just speaks his heart) but think it through, try to not say something that he may end up backing down on or contradicting himself with once he’s cooled down mid week.

The lads proved it numerous times that he can let the odd thing he regrets slip from his mouth in the heated moment. I love him because he’s not a robot but it’s just nice to see something he says stick.

It’s true but sometimes I think, how do we all do in this case? After you jump out of a kart at the local track or come of the basketball court, you are pumped with adrenaline, you might might be a bit angry and some stuff that went on. Think of the stuff you have said, in your mind at least, after a kart race or even tough commute on the road. It would be really tragic if I got out of my car after another 40 minute grind and a scrum of reporters were there to hear my thoughts.

It’s a scientific fact that this stress condition impairs your brain’s higher functions. That’s why there is a team official there with a tape recorder in your face and looking at you really weird when you are going down the wrong path.

It would be really tragic if I got out of my car after another 40 minute grind and a scrum of reporters were there to hear my thoughts.

Ha love it, very true.

It seems to just be the dudes character and I do not blame him for that, with frustration fueling a lot of what he ends up saying. You can see it building and over flowing in the drivers who know they have come that close to claiming or challenging for the WDC: Alonso and Hamilton having vented the most this season. They know another chance has slipped between their fingers!

He is damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t. If he says the sorts of things he did after the race in Korea he gets slated and when he then comes out and compliments other drivers he gets stick for that too because it is apparently disingenuous. Come on users of the internet, lighten up. He wears his heart on his sleeve in an era where we complain drivers are too robotic and the teams too PR driven, he gives the press something to write about, he has given us some great memories on the track and will continue to do so for many years to come, give the lad a break.

@omarr-pepper He did not . He wrote the messages after the weekend . The only time he gives away his feelings is when he speaks to interviewers which is always interpreted as being derogatory . I think he should do less of it .

If Hamilton’s tweets are PR then I don’t know what you would call those reversals when Vettel apologized to the team for winning in Malaysia just a day after his hubristic speech on the podium .

The only guy who is impervious to PR is Kimi as he has forged a great reputation for being so right from the beginning .

@geemac I don’t get the “He is damned if he does and damned if he doesnâ€™t.”. I don’t see anyone attacking him for this last set of tweets, just pointing out it’s PR. Which is not really an attack, it’s to be expected that drivers have PR managers, as they represent not only their teams but also their sponsors.

He’s being attacked for speaking too much when he’s angry, disappointed or frustrated (which, to be fair, applies to a lot of drivers), and these last tweets don’t really change that.

I said people have said that people say his last set of comments, or indeed any comments when he compliments another driver, are disingenuous, meaning people don’t think he is being sincere or honest in his views, which in my mind is an attack on those comments.

@geemac That may be a bit overdramatical. While you can technically define that as an attack, it’s really more like an observation of the public image of celebrities.

Whether you believe his comments are 100% sincere or not, you can’t deny how filled of PR his (and all drivers’) world is. And it’s logical to be so, since he represents not only himself but the team and patrocinators.

@silence Granted attack is a strong word, but I couldn’t find an appropriate word at the time.

Yes that’s true, there is a lot of PR around the teams and drivers. But my point is that I just think it is a bit hypocritical of f1 fans to have a go at someone who decides to bypass all the PR and actually speak his mind when we complain the teams and drivers are all PR robots these days.

In an interesting point the one you raise, but it’s also one you need handle carefully.

While it’s true that there is a common criticism that there is way too much PR involved in F1, that doesn’t make the drivers automatically impervious to criticism.

To give a (granted, forced example), if a driver came out and made racist remarks, I would critize that, regardless of how honest he was or how much PR he avoided. As I said, forced example, but it illustate the point that being honest doesn’t make your views flawless.

Same applies here. It’s good that we get some PR-free views from him, but just because they’re PR-free it means we have to like them.

We’ve seen glimpses the “real” Hamilton, and, like everything real, some will like it, some will not.

@silence “Weâ€™ve seen glimpses the â€śrealâ€ť Hamilton, and, like everything real, some will like it, some will not.”

Agreed, but all I am saying is that people shouldn’t beg and plead for drivers to speak their minds openly and honestly (because so few do these days, Hamilton, Webber and a few others do) and then baselessly criticize them when they do so. They also shouldn’t then dismiss any positive comments as “PR speak” when they come out with them. You’ve got to be fair in praise and criticism.

For the record I didn’t agree with what Hamilton said after Korea, no driver has a right to race for certain positions, world champion or not. You have to perform to a high level and earn your results. However, I do admire his praise open of Vettel. Given the amount of booing he has gotten and the alarmist press stories about how he is taking F1 back to its early 2000’s borefest days, I think they were well timed.

They also shouldnâ€™t then dismiss any positive comments as â€śPR speakâ€ť when they come out with them. Youâ€™ve got to be fair in praise and criticism.

As I said before, just because he made some PR-free statements it does not mean he’s impervious to criticism, or that I’m forced to take EVERYTHING he says at face value. There’s really no logic in that.

If something sounds like PR, comes at a fitting timing for PR, in an industry filled with PR, I’m going to call it PR if I think it is. It’s what logic and reasoning indicates me.

This would make sense if there was a way to confirm he’s being honest. But there’s not, and since we’ve already discussed how PR-filled the F1 world is, there’s nothing that proves it’s not PR. As I said before, it may be not, who knows, but it’s far from illogical or hypocritical to believe so.

The reason Hamilton is being ‘slated’ for saying positive things about another driver is because he had to remove his foot from his mouth (again) to say it! Not to mention more than likely ‘forced’ to do it by his/Mercedes PR team.

If he had of said those things after the race about Vettel, no one would have said anything, except perhaps that he’s grown up and has finally matured (at 28 it would be about time!). But he didn’t did he? He came out and more or less slated Vettel and told the world that he and Alonso ‘deserved’ to be at the front. Along with that he gave Hulkenburg absolutely no praise what so ever.

His first comments make his ‘positive’ comments look disingenuous, not the media!

You can say all you like, but he is supposed to be a professional sportsman and is one of the highest paid sportsman in the world. If this doesn’t call for some form of decorum than I don’t know what does. Certain positions come with certain responsibilities – we’re not animals, we live in a society!

He’s an arrogant little sore loser with a sense of entitlement that sickens me!

He’s 4th best on the grid at the moment AT BEST! The last 4 years have PROVEN that. The sooner he realizes that the better!

After watching RUSH and looking up some subsequent documentaries on that era of motorsport, it makes me think that fans were lucky back then that the drivers said it as they saw it, never needed to apologise. Fans these days have to try and decipher through PR, I’m not suggesting thats what HAM is doing today, but the amount of PC talk is meaningless sometimes that it just doesn’t say what the fans want to hear.

On a serious note, I’m glad he recognises that regardless of the car, Seb’s just on its own. I feel like sometimes Hamilton says stuff that kind of make sense, but the way he says it, or the moment he says it, are not ideal and it ends up coming the other way.

The thing that irks me about Hamilton (as good a driver as he is), is that he seems to be obsessed with having a legacy, and as being seen as of the greats. It is almost a backwards way of looking at it. Rather than wanting to win further world championships, therefore becoming an icon in the process, he is just keen to be a â€śgreatâ€ť, an â€śicon of the sportâ€ť, he is distracted too much with the long term legacy of being in the sport.
It is like he is trying to create a legacy rather than getting on with the driving. He is already imagining how he will be seen and remembered in the future and is desperate he is part of that recorded history. As his legacy plans slip away, he becomes very upset and makes silly statements which make it sound as if he should be entitled to be near the front.
This is another point, but I also think Hamilton is also keen to establish himself as a Brand, in the same vein as â€śBrand Beckhamâ€ť. This is possible due to his management company, or just a sign of modern Branding pressures on drivers……I donâ€™t know.
I wish he would just concentrate on the now, forgot the legacy, brand, and just race hard, win more, and win more world championships…..

Rather than wanting to win further world championships, therefore becoming an icon in the process, he is just keen to be a â€śgreatâ€ť, an â€śicon of the sportâ€ť, he is distracted too much with the long term legacy of being in the sport.

Sorry buddy, I don’t think it makes sense. How come Lewis don’t want to win more? I think he should be sitting on 2 WDC right now, not more. He could come close to win in 2012 to add another WDC to his tally but winning with that amount of reliability issues and team fails would be a miracle.

I am not talking about what he has or has not achieved, or should have achieved.

I am just saying that his language indicates that he is obsessed with how he will be remembered …and that seems to play on his mind a lot. He has talked a lot about how he wants be remembered as one of the ‘greats’ akin to Ayerton Senna. He even plans a museum for himself to display all his trophys etc.
People who are obsessed with trying to shape their own legacy and who try to ensure they will be rememberd as a “great person” or “great driver” or whatever….are usually on a hiding to nothing.
He seems to get very distracted by this….

I did not want to draw comparisons….but Vettel gives the impression he is 100% concentrated on each and every race, not distracted by what may or may not happen in the future…..how he may or may not be remembered….fully focused…..

@mach1 on my previous comment, I basically try to say that it’s not all down to alleged lack of focus that Lewis does not have more than 1 WDC. He’s racing great drivers and one of them happens to be driving a terrific car for 4 years running.

Personally, I don’t think Seb would be dominating if he was driving for Ferrari or Mercedes.

@mach1
There are drivers that hope to make it into F1.
There are drivers that hope to finish in the points and drivers that expect to finish in the points.
There are drivers that hope to be on the podium and drivers that expect to be on the podium.
There are drivers that hope for a win and drivers that expect many wins.
There are drivers that hope for a chance at the WDC.

Dunno dude, watching on-board video’s of your competitors to work out how they are driving to see if you can improve? That sounds like the actions of someone who wants to win.

If you then realise that your competitors are making more mistakes than you but still able to get on the power 20m before you can because of their car. Well, that is disheartening. Why? Because there is NOTHING a driver can do to make that up, you simply have to depend on your team to build a quicker car for you to be competitive.

It is here that Hamilton messes up though, by being HONEST with the public.

20meters earlier is a HUGE exageration and also limited to one race where vettel was just plain dominant. This past weekend hamilton had a car on pace with vettel and didnt get the job done. He got jumped at the start and couldnt repass grosjean. Then hulkenburg did the same to him. Hamilton is not in vettels league. He started 2nd and finished 5th. If he was as good as he thinks he is, he would have challenged vettel more this past weekend and atleast come second. i have no pity for his back tracking comments. He needs to wake up to himself.

I would rather hear a driver like Hamilton (or Alonso) pitch a fit after a bad race than have someone like Button who just retires to the motor home for a cup of tea and a cucumber sandwich, emerging to tell the press that he would love to end his career exactly as it is now. Slamming down one’s racket, tossing the helmet, etc., is a good sign sometimes.

@dkpioe But these things he did in the race were not the real issue in my mind – it happens that you have a bad start, and it happens that you get the setup of your car a bit wrong so you get overtaken by a Sauber and overtake him yourself.

Much worse was that Hamilton was trying to pass Grosjean for many laps without getting close of having a chance. However, he ruined his tyres in the process. He should have known his target lap, and should have known whether he can push or not. Look at Rosberg instead: He was 15 seconds or so behind Hamilton but kept his tyres alive and managed to pass Hamilton easily.

Hamilton was very lucky that Hulkenberg was holding the field up, otherwise he may well have been passed by more drivers than Rosberg.

It looks like few people didn’t understand @mach1 comment and I have the same feeling about Hamilton.
He does want to win, maybe more so than other drivers, but it feels like, for him, winning is just what he has to do to achieve his ultimate goal – to become a legend. Now, with couple of missed opportunities and a couple of years stuck in a deficient car with no chance for championship, no matter how hard he tries, his plans are not being realized and that makes him frustrated.

“If you then realise that your competitors are making more mistakes than you but still able to get on the power 20m before you can because of their car.”

You realize of course that Vettel’s pole laps from both Singapore (and Korea) were dissected on the Sky pad and wasn’t making mistakes. Folks keep taking one thing Lewis said a year or 2 ago when he was behind Vettel and Vettel was taking a different line then him.

I was recently listening to Lindsay Vonn talk about downhill racing, and she knows a thing or 2 about going fast and needing to not make mistakes. She said the perfect downhill run, hitting all the apexes, etc. perfectly doesn’t equate to the fastest downhill run. Sometimes you have to sacrifice one corner to set up the next, etc.

Sorry @uan but you either misunderstood what I was saying or I don’t understand your point. I didn’t want to comment on drivers’ skills or quality of the cars.
I want to point out that when Hamilton had a decent car to challenge for the championships (2010 and 2012) for whatever reason he missed the opportunities. For 2011 and 2013 Red Bull is arguably a better car than Mercedes so Hamilton again doesn’t have a chance to win the championship. All this doesn’t fit in his plan and that makes him loose his cool and makes statements that, while some can argue are technically correct, don’t sit well with the general public, let alone Vettel’s fans.

Actually Hamilton has said all that before, but people don’t want to know when he compliments Seb and praises how cool Seb is. What really sells is when someone outlines how good Seb car is and we get the opportunity to say that “it’s all sour grapes”…

IMHO I don’t think Seb likes to win without fighting, it’s not his fault that the rest of the field are consistently failing to build cars that match his Red Bull. Like Lewis said â€śRegardless of what you and I may think about his car, at the end of the day heâ€™s doing the perfect job.â€ť

Again, I think Seb himself would rather beat Alonso, Hamilton, Raikkonen, Button or Santa Claus on fairly paired cars than the way he does more often than not.

If he doesnt want to be misunderstood, he should say things clearly. If he compliments the car and not Vettel, and only a day later goes on to compliment them both, there is a big impression the second comment is just PR because he said something stupid first. Seriously, Hamilton has a habbit of saying stupid things (that get thrown out of proportion).

Funny how that USA Today article claims drivers are levelling cheating accusations, yet the only two drivers quoted say nothing of the sort. One even goes so far as to praise RBR on finding something no-one else has!

The fact that people thought he said something else says something about them. His “clarification” confirmed what i read in his earlier remarks. If you think he made a U-turn, maybe it is you that is at fault (not targetting anyone specific, you=general F1 fan) with a lack of reading and interpreting skill.

what I don’t get is why Hamilton opens his mouth at all – he makes a fool of himself, and not appearing as a respectable sportsman at all.. he basically said that Vettel’s dominance is negative and the fans do not like it. I wonder if he was dominating would he say the same thing? NO, so it is pure sour grapes, infact rotten grapes, he does not respresent the view of the fans. none of the other drivers would dare say such rubbish. he has done this before, given ridiculous oppinions, then days later he reverts his claims to save face. is anyone else really disgusted by this behaviour? it is not even media manipulation, it is his exact words!

I think there is indeed something about Hamilton and driving for his legacy. He seems to obsessed by it. It looks like in his mind he’s had a whole scheme planned out, but in reality it’s not going his way.

As for wearing his heart on his sleeve, I think it’s better to stay diplomatic. Maybe it’s a Belgian thing. You look like a sore loser saying those things. A lot of people think it shows a more human side, it doesn’t. It shows you still have some growing up to do.

I guess Hamilton will be remembered for his sheer speed, being the fastest man of his era, but not as being the most successful, the most complete nor the most mature.

That’s how it is. Damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t. Lewis Hamilton never criticized Sebastian, even Vettel said that he’s getting along with Lewis a lot since Bahrein.
But some people like to twist his words to sell articles, attention-grabbing headlines or nonsense like that Tweet from Jake Humphrey last night…People told him the truth, he paddled back after when he realized his errors. F1 is not really interesting at the moment for some and media should stop generalizing. Maybe some fans will watch F1, others don’t because they’re losing interest. We already know who’s winning but most of the action is happening in the back! Not all the fans don’t like Vettel/RedBull, I don’t even think its Sebastian fault but please papers should stop to use Lewis’s name for no reason, just to get traffic.
David Coulthard said it all, Lewis Hamilton is right! Check his status https://twitter.com/therealdcf1/status/387492038913974272.

yes and that Sauber guy HĂĽlkenberg will possibly drive a Red Bull in 2 years, which Ham & Alonso were so desperate to join. Alonso miscalculated the sheer might of Ferrari, still under the impression of the Schumi era. Hamilton was spoilt early getting a top drive from day one. Now both have to face the fact that the best team is out of their reach, and even worse, not even wanted by this team.

Hamilton suffers from foot in mouth disease and this isn’t the first time it has happened. He slags off other drivers and has little charity for them, as others have said, it wouldn’t have hurt to acknowledge Huklenberg’s brilliant drive – oh and I bet he’d like to have as many championships as ‘boring Schumacher’